What’s Blockchain Technology, and Why Are States Hesitant to Adopt It?

Anyone who’s ever undertaken a digitizing project knows that the worst part of it is the sheer time and patience it requires. The reward is never having to do it again — and, of course, the untold hours saved on future searches and organizing.

The thought of a government converting its databases to blockchain, the digital ledger technology underpinning the cryptocurrency bitcoin, is like that — but about a million times more overwhelming.

That’s what makes a proposed state Senate bill in Colorado so unusual. It aims to make the state an early blockchain adopter at a time when most government agencies are only vaguely aware of the technology.